What is the life span of a Cat?

[Lonelymom]

I have a cat, well my MIL now has my cat that is 11 years old.  I had this cat from birth on and when we moved he refused to come along. He would find a way out of the house and return to the old house which is right next door to my MIL so for the past 4 years she has kept him. I go down there and help her bath him and give him medication when he needs it.

The problem is he is looking so old and fragile. He stays with an eye infection that me and the vet can't clear up. Mainly because he has very bad allergies. He is also loosing weight even though he gets fed three times a day with can cat food mixed with dry cat food and believe me it is the expensive stuff I get from the vet. He is no longer grooming himself and I think he may be blind now.

Is all this happening because of his age?  Should I uthenize him to end all this suffering or is it just me suffering seeing him this way?

[A_Muse4u]

My present cat will be 13 yrs young in Sept.  I had a cat, previous to the present cat, that lived w/our fam. for 18 yrs. then she disappeared and never came home.  :...(

[Lonelymom]

I am really surprised my baby lived that long not because i didn't care for him but because he seemed to stay sick from birth. That is what happens when the mother kitties don't get vacinated and then have kittens. All the kittens of that litter were either born unformed or were born dead he was the only survivor of the litter and that is why we kept him. We also took his mother in and had her fixed.  We had her for quite a while until my nephew let her out of the house and a dog got her.

She could not defend herself from him because she was deformed and did not have a fourth leg. She had three normal legs and then her right front leg was deformed. I can't even really describe what she looked like. She was also rescued as a stray.

[Tammy2009]

Sorry to hear about your cat :'(  I have had my first cat since she was 2-3 years old (stray) and now she is 17-18 and I also have a 3 year old now.  My first cat (Smokey) has never been sick a day in her life, except for my arthuritis now since she was 10 that cleared up with 2 years of zuke's hip action treats and if only now getting stiff (partially because the kitten reacted to the only brands of cat food with glucsoamine in it!! gawr).  

I ignore that "cats are senior by age 7" that is like saying we are considered senior by age 40, which is not true.  Most of the cats I know/have heard about live to be roughly 15-22 years depending on the health of the individual.  My kitten (Boomer) is probably not going to live as long as Smokey because he got FHV (the herpes upper respiratory virus) when he was 7 weeks old and it ruined his tear ducts.  

[whiskey104]

omg i am so sorry for your loss. i have a 5 month old kitten and i wish i could give my kitten even half the love it seems u have given your cat

[Lonelymom]

Well I have sad news for my baby. He had a severe upper respitory infection. The vet put him on antibiotics and gave him two shots of different antibiotics to help him but we found him the next morning curled up under my bed dead. I am very saddened by our loss!!

The ironic thing is we were burring him and all of a sudden I hear this cat meowing, so I start looking for my other cats and found a kitten in my yard running towards me like she knew me. I picked her up and she was covered in sticker burs. I took her to my moms house and we groomed her up bathed her and then I called my vet and he was able to squize her in for shots. She now has been wormed shots and cleaned up!! The ironic thing is she looks just like my baby except she doesn't have a tail. I am very sad over loosing my baby but this kitten is really trying to steal my heart.  

My husband said I really am becoming the crazy cat lady.

[Phoenix177]

My Dad's cat made it to 25yrs when she lost her battle with cancer. my brother's cat made it to 4yr. my cats are 20yr, 15yr, and 13yr. I lost Suzy at the age of 18yr last year.

If I remember right, the 1st year (our years) = 15 years to cats. after that every year = 4 years for cats. So a 11year old (our yrs) would be 55years old in cat years